A perennial plant 20-30 cm tall. Stems glabrous. Lower stem leaves pale purple, 5-8 mm; middle to upper leaves linear to linear-lanceolate, 3-10 cm × 3-9(-14) mm, base narrowed to obtuse, margin slightly revolute and smooth, apex acuminate to acute, veins 1-3; upper leaves slightly smaller, longer than but not surrounding flowers. Flowers terminal, solitary, sessile or subsessile, rarely also few in axils of upper leaves; bracts linear-lanceolate, 1.5-2 cm; calyx tube 8-10 mm, entire; lobes linear to linear-lanceolate, 0.8-1.5 cm, margin slightly revolute, apex acute, vein 1; corolla violet to blue-purple, tubular-campanulate, 4-5 cm; lobes ovate-triangular, 7-9 mm, margin entire, apex acuminate; plicae obliquely ovate, 3.5-4 mm, margin irregularly denticulate, apex obtuse; stamens inserted at basal part of corolla tube; filaments 0.9-1.2 cm; anthers narrowly ellipsoid, 3.5-4 mm; style 2-3 mm. Capsules 1.5-1.8 cm; gynophore to 2 cm. Seeds 1.8-2.2 mm.

Antibacterial and stomachic (roots)

Flora of China
Plants For A Future

The roots are used in the treatment of jaundice, leucorrhoea, eczema, conjunctivitis, sore throat, acute infection of the urinary system, hypertension with dizziness and tinnitus.

Jing-Nuan Wu. An Illustrated Chinese Materia Medica. P: 334, Oxford University Press, Inc.2005.